Havergal Brian.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Why do I love HB's music? I was 16 when I discovered it, in 1977, through MM's classic studies. Only a year later could I actually hear it - symphonies 8 and 9, and I knew I had found my musical soulmate. Why do I love Brian's music? Inventiveness, power, sound, unpredictability, beauty, the peculiar world it inhabits and creates, grandeur, originality, dramatic concision.

[calyptorhynchus]

Why is HB's music so compelling?

1.     It is extraordinarily elemental, it sounds like the music other composers are trying to write, but they can't quite do it.

2.     The music is endlessly striving and never sentimental or defeated, and never too long.

3.     There are 32 symphonies to choose from (plus other works), so there is always one that is right for the particular listening time.

4.     The sound of his orchestra is wonderful, I love the way that he bases it in the brass, and the strings often have to accompany. I get the feeling that with HB the western orchestral is finally liberated as an expressive tool, with strings, ww, brass and percussion all now equally important.

5.     Given the foregoing, then his life story is sympathetic (if he wasn't a brilliant composer then it would be irrelevant). I love the idea that he started composing when Gladstone was prime minister and was still composing when the PM was Harold Wilson.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I concur, of course, with everything calyptorhynchus says.

[vandermolen]

Although the appeal of HB's music has been expressed more eloquently above, I would say that I like it because of:

Its craggy grandeur

The visionary and searching quality of works like Symphony 8 and Symphony 10.

Many of the themes are memorable, unexpected and have a kind of 'beauty out of the ashes' quality to them - certainly a moment in Symphony 2 does it for me.

In concert the gargantuan 'Gothic' is like nothing else - the first time I heard the music was live in London (Ole Schmidt performance).

The appeal of his music is intensified by the knowledge that he ploughed on with it into extreme old age in the face of almost complete indifference. Although it is the quality of the music itself which is most appealing.

He lived nearby in Sussex.

A bus is named after him 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

'A bus is named after him.' A bus with a mind of its own, that never gets you where you thought you were going.

[springrite]

The visionary and searching quality of works like Symphony 8 and Symphony 10.

Yes, this! I also like what other people may consider to be his shortcomings, such as once in a while, half way through and idea he'd go into a tangent which(seemingly) leads to nowhere. But this IS how we think, how we search, how we explore, isn't it? To me, these thought are more "real" and I can relate to them.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

As an addendum, sparked by springrite: more than with any other composer I get the feeling we are inside Brian's mind and heart themselves, and that their mysterious life dictates what happens musically and creates those unpredictable structures.

[vandermolen]

'A bus is named after him.' A bus with a mind of its own, that never gets you where you thought you were going.

Excellent Johan!
Just as you think it is going in one direction it unexpectedly goes in another.
But it has some very loyal passengers who stay on board regardless.
.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

But it has some very loyal passengers who stay on board regardless.
.

The infamous 'Brian groupies'...

[relm1]

Why do I love HB's music? I was 16 when I discovered it, in 1977, through MM's classic studies. Only a year later could I actually hear it - symphonies 8 and 9, and I knew I had found my musical soulmate. Why do I love Brian's music? Inventiveness, power, sound, unpredictability, beauty, the peculiar world it inhabits and creates, grandeur, originality, dramatic concision.

That was my introduction as well.  It was Charles Groves cassette tape of No. 8 and 9 in the mid 1980's for me.  I thought it was very original and didn't sound like anyone else but was full of emotion and energy.

[Maestro267]

One of the things that appeals to me about HB is that he composed for the sheer love of it. Even if it was never performed, this music just had to get out of his mind and onto manuscript paper. This is music from the soul, not music forced out by Commission and Money.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Exactly! Written out of necessity, an existential need.

[Klaatu]

For me, Brian's appeal is his relevance to the 'Zeitgeist'.

The West has become largely secular and we take our philosophy of life from scientists - especially from 'celebrity' scientists like Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins.

And these guys tell us that existence is nothing more than the outworking of the laws of physics. There's no inherent meaning to life - although we can pretend there is, in order to avoid going nuts (or we can just take antidepressants, as the militant atheist philosopher Alex Rosenberg recommends in his book 'The Atheist's Guide to Reality'.)

The phrase which sticks in my mind is the "blind, pitiless indifference of the universe" (Richard Dawkins)

And this is why Brian appeals to me. Here is this dogged figure, singing his song despite the utter indifference of the cosmos (not to mention that of the musical establishment!) His life could almost be a metaphor for our age.

I hear this especially in the 10th symphony, with its violin melody pitted against elements which suggest the forces of nature (the 'storm') and the vastness and impassiveness of the universe (the 'still point' with its stellar twinklings, and that 'Sphinx like' brass chord near the end.)

I've always found it interesting that the "Gothic", in which Brian (IMHO) expressed his loss of any orthodox religious faith, was followed by a symphony subtitled "Man in his Cosmic Loneliness"!

[Sergeant Rock]

To you, is he Mahler 2.0? 

I agree with most of the comments posted prior to mine but yes, Mahler has something to do with it. I was a Mahler fan (fanatic) years before I heard a single note of Brian. Although he's a very different composer, when I finally heard Brian (the Groves 8 ), I heard a similarity to Mahler (those militant brass-heavy marches in particular) that appealed instantly. Brian is like Mahler compressed to its essence.

Brian wrote about Mahler but he could have been writing about himself:

"Mahler's genius lies hidden in the subtle use of his enormous forces. He is an outstanding contrapuntist, his lines have resilience and he is a dexterous manipulator of the laws of contrast. The layout of his symphonies suggest an unfolding drama..."

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

'Brian is like Mahler compressed to its essence.' I get what you're saying. Brian is much less personal than Mahler, though, much less confessional and autobiographic. He expresses a lot of emotions, but I don't get the feeling he is necessarily expressing his own. Brian is more of a dramatist. You get swift scenes.  Mahler writes in the first person, Brian in the third. And Brian gives you the essence of the march, anger, war, ecstasy, longing, nostalgia et cetera. Mahler is still 19th-century in his sense of time, Brian much more 20th-century, even 21st-century.

[Sergeant Rock]

Brian is much less personal than Mahler, though, much less confessional and autobiographic...Brian is more of a dramatist[...]Mahler is still 19th-century in his sense of time, Brian much more 20th-century, even 21st-century.

Oh yeah, I agree. Mahler pointed to the new century but was still part of the 19th, while Brian fully embraced the new and the future. And I agree about the difference between the "confessional" Mahler and the "dramatist" Brian. But I still hear Mahler in Brian. Just a few minutes ago, a few seconds of violin solo in the 30th reminded me of Mahler's extended violin solo in the second movement of his Fourth. Again, Brian as Mahler compressed. Not that I think Brian was consciously or unconsciously, imitating Mahler. It's just what he reminds me of, and why I appreciate both composers.

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I love both of them, too. Funnily enough, I feel emotionally much closer to Brian. As if Mahler's very 'openness about his feelings' creates more distance!

[Sergeant Rock]

I love both of them, too. Funnily enough, I feel emotionally much closer to Brian. As if Mahler's very 'openness about his feelings' creates more distance!

Interesting. I can't say I'm the same way. My own poetry is very much influenced by the confessional poets, so maybe I naturally gravitate towards the confessional Mahler. Brian is the "colder" and more objective composer and, while I love him, he doesn't give me quite the same emotional explosion I get from Mahler.

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

And that's interesting, too. I write prose, and almost always in the third person. Mahler moves me strongly, but I identify with Brian.

[vandermolen]

Yes, this! I also like what other people may consider to be his shortcomings, such as once in a while, half way through and idea he'd go into a tangent which(seemingly) leads to nowhere. But this IS how we think, how we search, how we explore, isn't it? To me, these thought are more "real" and I can relate to them.

Excellent point Paul - Very much share this view.